Let's Play Fighting Fantasy: The Port of Peril

[angelfromanotherpin]

It's hard to know which one of those options is least sensible without a better sense of the horde's length vs depth, so I'm lost.

My guess is that having to do a daring action-scene breakthrough would be awesome and also reinforce the sense of urgency that keeps being undermined by plot objects being the result of various time-wastings. So the correct answer is to do the boring time-wasting ride around.

[Omegonthesane]

Agreed.

[Queen of Swords]

Without warning Stormheart comes to a sudden halt, rearing up on his hind legs to save himself from falling off.

Falling off what?

Also, I'll go with riding through the skeletons, seems like the stupid thing to do.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Without warning Stormheart comes to a sudden halt, rearing up on his hind legs to save himself from falling off.

Falling off what?

I accidentally omitted a line, it should be "Stormheart comes to a sudden start, rearing up on his hind legs, with Nicodemus clinging on to you to save himself from falling off." It's what I get for typing when I'm tired.

Anyhow, 2-1 in favor of riding around the Skeletons:

Which is the correct call, because riding through is a Game Over.

You calm Stormheart down and spur him on again, taking a detour around the back of the Skeletons. 'Zanbar Bone is here. I feel his presence,' Nicodemus shouts in your ear as you urge Stormheart on through the forest. 'There is not a moment to lose!' You ride east through the forest beyond the Skeletons, and circle back towards Yaztromo's Tower, arriving at last at a scene of despair. The tower is totally black from its base to the parapet on top. Purple vines as thick as rope burst out of the ground around the tower, climbing rapidly up the walls like fat worms. Huge numbers of Skeletons stream out of the forest and march to a halt, standing to attention in perfect formation, fifty across and twenty deep, one thousand armed Skeletons awaiting orders. Suddenly the great oak door flies open and a figure emerges from the Tower. It is Hakasan, screaming at you to come inside. She has a look of despair in her eyes.

Go inside Yaztromo's Tower?
Hack at the vines climbing the tower with your sword?

[angelfromanotherpin]

I think climbing the tower is definitely dumber, but I also think 'doing what the NPC says' overrides that. Go inside.

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, go inside. It's almost over!

[SGamerz]

Enter the tower.

[Darth Rabbitt]

You follow Hakasan up the winding staircase to the library, where Yaztromo is pacing anxiously up and down. He smiles on seeing his good friend Nicodemus, and gives him a big bear hug. Hakasan looks out of the window and makes a solemn announcement: 'He's arrived.' You walk over to the window and look out to see Zanbar Bone, scythe in hand, leaning on silk cushions of an ornate gilt throne carried on the shoulders of four skeletons. Returning as a Demon Prince, he is evil personified. His unmistakable spiked skull is now twice the size it was before, and he has grown bat-like wings and cloven hooves. The Skeletons' army parts down the middle to allow their leader a passageway to the front. there is a gigantic five metre-tall tentacled beast following behind the throne, hideous in appearance, the like of which you have never seen before. You hurriedly decide your battle plan with Yaztromo, Nicodemus and Hakasan. You volunteer to lead the attack on Zanbar Bone. Hakasan says she will defend you from the onrushing Skeleton horde. Nicodemus says he will be at your side casting spells. Yaztromo claps his hands, and says, 'And I will stand on your other side casting spells. Good! We have a plan. The Demon Prince will taste our most powerful magic today.' He pours green juice from a stoppered flask into a cup, and tells you to drink it. You immediately feel invigorated. Add 2 SKILL points and 2 STAMINA points. You run downstairs to the ground floor and open the door on to a scene of total chaos. Zanbar Bone is standing on his throne, laughing maniacally. His army of Skeletons are rattling their swords against their shields, a deafening sound of clashing steel which is painful to your ears. Suddenly he raises his arms skywards, and his troops stand to attention, rigid and upright. All is quiet for a few seconds before the silence is broken by the distant sound of buzzing. A dark cloud appears in the sky and the buzzing sound grows louder. The cloud flies down towards you like a large flock of birds. But this is not a flock of birds - it is a plague of insects controlled by Zanbar Bone. (Harry is wearing a dragonfly pendant.)

Silver dragonfly pendants made by Jadan Fam were all dipped in the juice of the ground-up Manglewort root, a very rare plant found only in springtime on Icefinger Mountains. The tiniest amount acts as a potent insect repellent. Only Jadan knew where to find the Manglewort, and he never told a soul where they grew to his dying day. Your pendant acts as an invisible shield, keeping the millions of insects at bay until Yaztromo steps in to blast them with a Volcano Spell, which makes them all explode, showering the skeleton horde with insect fragments. Zanbar Bone rages from his throne, and commands his tentacled beast to attack you.

The unholy beast strides forward with heavy steps which makes the ground tremble. It is grey-green in colour with ugly red veins protruding from its skin. It has giant-sized clawed hands with suckered palms, but the most terrifying thing is its enormous mouth, which is almost as wide as its torso. Its mouth opens to reveal two rows of flesh-ripping teeth, and six long, suckered tentacles which shoot out from its throat, flailing around in the air. The vile beast is QUAG-SHUGGUTH, a Lesser Demon summoned from the Plain of Pain by Zanbar Bone. It has tiny eyes and is virtually blind, but it senses your presence and knows exactly where you are. You have to fight it! (Harry owns a Venom Sword.)

The monstrous creature lumbers forward, its long tentacles curling in and out of its cavernous mouth, trying to snare you. Its iron-like hide is difficult to pierce with normal weapons, but your Venom Sword was crafted with Demon-slayer magic. Add 3 SKILL points.

QUAG-SHUGGUTH SKILL 12 STAMINA 13

Combat Log:

QS 16, Harry 21. QS is at 11.
QS 16, Harry 19. QS is at 9.
QS 16, Harry 23. QS is at 7.
QS 18, Harry 20. QS is at 5.
QS 22, Harry 20. Harry is at 18.
QS 22, Harry 21. Harry is at 16.
QS 22, Harry 16. Harry is at 14.
QS 19, Harry 20. QS is at 3.
(Gonna test Luck on the next hit here, for the same reasons given against the Imperial Guard Troll.)
QS 14, Harry 16. Luck test: 1,5=6;Lucky! Quag-Shugguth is killed!

The death of Quag-Shugguth makes Zanbar Bone go into a frenzy. With maggots pouring from his mouth, he curses your name. Lightning strikes the ground from the darkened sky, and he steps down from his throne to order his Skeletons forward to attack. Yaztromo casts a Warp Spell on the Skeletons to slow them briefly and give you time to advance, whilst Hakasan launches herself at the Skeletons in front of you, swinging her sword back and forth trying to hack a way through to the Demon Prince. The air is putrid with the smell of Skeletons, their bones grinding against each other in the crush to reach you. But you stay calm and ready yourself for the final battle. (Nicodemus is wearing the Ring of Burning Snakes.)

With his clenched fist pointed at the Demon, Nicodemus steps forward and calls on the Ring of Burning Snakes to spit fire. Louder and louder he speaks, using arcane words until a cone of fire shoots out from the mouths of the snakes, enveloping Zanbar Bone in a circle of flame. The Demon throws his head back, laughing manically, the yellow flames merely dancing around his body and causing him no harm. 'White fire! White fire!' Yaztromo screams at Nicodemus, whose pale face is contorted with pain from the effort. Using his supreme mental powers to the full, he shouts even louder, screaming at the top of his voice, which makes the veins on the side of his head pulsate and sweat run down his face. The intensity of heat increases, and the colour of the cone of flame changes from yellow to white, causing the expression in Zanbar Bone's eyes to change from immortal power to extreme fear. 'Now!' screams Yaztromo. 'Now! Bone is trapped in the ring of white flame!' The moment has arrived for you to strike. Will you:

Attack him with your sword?
Fire an arrow at him?
Fire a flintlock pistol at him?

Adventure Sheet
Harry Balzac
SKILL: 12/12
STAMINA: 14/20
LUCK: 11/12
Weapons: Venom Sword, Bow (6 arrows), Loaded Flintlock Pistol (3 spare lead balls,) Pouch of Black Powder
Armor: Shield, Black Chain-Mail Vest, Black Cloak, Iron Helmet, Chaos Warrior Gauntlets
Magic Items: Bracelet of Power, Elven Boots, Cursed Copper Necklace, Tyche Ring, Dragonfly Pendant (worn around neck), Horn of Calling
Provisions: 2 Meals (restore 4 STAMINA each)
Potions: None
Money: 7 Gold Pieces, 14 Copper Pieces
Keys: Iron Key, 20 Brass Keys, Silver Key (in Silver Box), Bunch of Iron Keys
Knives: Long Knife, Serrated Knife
Items: Map, Ball of Twine, Candle, Small Brass Bell, Oil Lantern, 2 Pieces of Chalk, Brass Owl, Rope, Bag of Copper Nails, Water Flask, Unicorn-Head Goblet, 4 Teeth, 3 Silver Buttons, Glass Eye, 3 Polished Stones, Dried Nettles, Cast-Iron Pig Trinket, Locket of Hag's Hair, Box of Fish Hooks, Glass Vial of Green Gas, Brass Compass, Lucky Bones, Large Ruby, Merchant's Pass, Silver Earring
Jars: Rats' Tails, Small Bones, Worms, Dead Flies, Lotus Flower, Noop Powder, Siff-Saff Paste
Running Total of Game Overs: 2

(I love the mental image of a giant skeletal demon shouting "Curse you, Harry Balzac!")

[Thaluikhain]

All the mucking around to get the flintlock, gotta be good for something. Shoot him with the pistol.

[angelfromanotherpin]

I don't like this artist's interpretation of Mr. Bone, but the Quag-shugguth pic is awesome.

Pistol him. The weapon we had the greatest chance to not have is clearly the only one that will work.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Nicodemus calls to you, saying he is running out of energy and will only be able to keep Zanbar Bone in place for a few seconds more. Yaztromo is breathing hard, exhausted from casting spells, and it is all Hakasan can do to stop the front row of Skeletons from breaking through. You grab the flintlock pistol from your belt, take aim at the Demon Prince's skull, and pull the trigger. There is a puff of smoke as the black powder ignites in the gun barrel with a bang, shooting out the lead ball. Roll two dice. (1,2=3; the number rolled is equal to or less than our SKILL score.)

With your heart pounding in your chest, you watch in amazement as Zanbar Bone's skull shatters on impact into tiny pieces. The Demon's skeletal body teeters for a second, and topples over sideways. Every Skeleton left standing immediately drops to the ground in a crumpled heap of bones. You step through the pile of bones to where Zanbar Bone's headless body is lying. One of his skeletal arms rises up slowly, with his index finger pointed at you. Hakasan walks over and chops off the hand, and everybody looks on in horror as his bones turn into dust that is blown away by a sudden gust of wind. 'I don't think we have seen that last of Zanbar Bone,' Nicodemus says quietly. 'Let's not worry about that now,' Yaztromo says reassuringly, putting his arm around the shoulders of his old friend. 'For now Allansia is safe. Let's go in and celebrate.'

Before settling down to enjoy Yaztromo's hospitality, the old wizard asks you to help him to remove the Demon's keystone that blights the roof of his tower. You climb the staircase on to the roof, where all four of you use your combined strength to push the black stone to the edge of the parapet. With one mighty heave, you push it over the edge, watching it fall to the ground and break up on the rocks below. Almost immediately the creepers engulfing Yaztromo's Tower start to wither and the walls of the tower start to lighten in colour. 'This is indeed a day for celebration,' Yaztromo says cheerfully. 'Can I have your attention, please? I have an important announcement to make. I have cakes!' With that, everybody rushes downstairs to sit at the dining table to enjoy the wide selection of delicious cakes. The two wizards have not seen each other in years, and spend as much time talking as eating. By his third cake, Nicodemus is yawning a lot, and says that he feels completely drained. Yaztromo tells him he can stay at his tower for as long as likes [sic] until he recovers his strength. Yaztromo asks you where you intend to go next in search of gold and glory. Without waiting for your reply, Hakasan says, 'Maybe we should try our luck in Fang? There is a purse of 10,000 Gold Pieces to be won in Baron Sukhumvit's Trial of Champions. It should be easy after this!' You remind her that only one person is allowed to come out of Sukhumvit's dungeon alive. 'That will be me, then!' she says cheekily. Everybody laughs and raises a glass in a toast to your next adventure, wherever it may take you. Yaztromo smiles warmly, and with his glass raised, looks you in the eye and says, 'Thank you for saving my tower. And thank you from all of us for saving Allansia. Maybe you should go back to Port Blacksand to tell Lord Azzur the good news. I'm sure he'd be delighted to see you! Whatever you choose, good LUCK on your adventure, and may your STAMINA never fail!'

And that's the book. Questions, comments, concerns? There isn't much content we missed, but I'll mention what little we did later on.

[Mr Shine]

Does the book actually check for black powder, or would someone who avoided the firework shop legitimately win?

What happens if you don't rescue Wulff or say you don't believe him?

[Omegonthesane]

Was there a single plot token we could have missed that wasn't an instadeath further down the line to miss?

[Queen of Swords]

We bought the venom sword, right? Does that work against ZB?

[Thaluikhain]

An ordinary gun kills him? Huh.

Also want to know how much of the plot we could miss by not investigating random things.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Does the book actually check for black powder, or would someone who avoided the firework shop legitimately win?

As written, yeah, the un-maintenanced flintlock would kill Bone.

What happens if you don't rescue Wulff or say you don't believe him?

In the first case, the bird literally shits on you. I'm not kidding. In the second, Hakasan says that she does and walks off, and after stepping in one of a few different hazards (either losing a SKILL point, a STAMINA point, or all of your backpack items) she finds you and you agree to go be railroaded believe the guy.

Was there a single plot token we could have missed that wasn't an instadeath further down the line to miss?

The only truly necessary ones are the Merchant's Pass, the Ring of Burning Snakes, and either the Flintlock Pistol or a Demon Dagger (more on that later).

If we failed a LUCK test earlier, we would have needed some Snake Oil to survive, which can be got in a trading sidequest at the beginning of the game (which also is what can get you enough gold to get the Demon Dagger.)

We bought the venom sword, right? Does that work against ZB?

It doesn't, even though Zanbar Bone is explicitly a Demon now, and the sword is soaked in Demon Killing Juice.

An ordinary gun kills him? Huh.

My theory is that since the book on Zanbar Bone said that he "can't be killed the same way twice" that he just hadn't been shot at before. Alternately, it's because headshotting a skeleton demon with a pistol is awesome.

Also want to know how much of the plot we could miss by not investigating random things.

Depends on what you mean by plot. If you mean "information that would make the story make slightly more sense" then there's a lot we could have missed. The only truly essential thing not Curiosity Cosbying everything would make us lose out on is the ruby needed for the flintlock.

[Queen of Swords]

So all these items like the noop powder, the unicorn-head goblet, orb of obedience...is there any real use for them?

[Darth Rabbitt]

So all these items like the noop powder, the unicorn-head goblet, orb of obedience...is there any real use for them?

The only two jars that have any use are the Fireroot Juice and the Sheep Eyeballs (and neither is actually the best option in the scenarios that you can use them.) You can trade the unicorn head goblet and the brass bell (or the candle and the brass bell) to get Bignose's battleaxe, although it doesn't have any special properties. The Orb and the Horn are both useless. A few of the other backpack items you start off with are part of a trading quest that starts off with agreeing to give the copper nails to that guy at the start. It’s guaranteed to get you the snake oil that I mentioned earlier and gives you a chance to get a gold rabbit charm that you can sell for 10 gold pieces to the jeweler we visited in Chalice. That’s the only way to have enough money to get the Demon Dagger.

EDIT: updated for accuracy.

[Darth Rabbitt]

The only meaningful block of content we missed was the "trading quest" I mentioned earlier. If you trade the copper nails for the bread and honey, the guy will offer a few other trades (in order: twine for snake oil, which can be used to cure a snakebite you can get later on; and brass owl for skunk oil, which has no use whatsoever other than that the market has opened by the point you've made the last trade, and you get the opportunity to visit it.)

In the market you can encounter a girl pickpocketing an old man, and if you challenge her (and pass a LUCK test) the old man will thank you (if you fail the crowd thinks you attacked the pickpocket for no reason and you lose 1 STAMINA point), and if you talk to him he'll give you 4 Copper Pieces and a gold rabbit charm. You can also get 1 Gold Piece from a street corner card dealer attempting to cheat you if you call him out on his bullshit. The rabbit charm is the good thing here, because you can sell it to the jeweler for 10 Gold Pieces, which allows you to buy a Demon Dagger, which is the backup strat for killing Zanbar Bone, although it's a lot less reliable than the flintlock (throwing the dagger has a 1/6 chance of killing him, which rises to 2/7 if you have a SKILL of 10 or higher.)

The only other notable thing we missed was helping out Mungo. It doesn't do much, however; his boat gets wrecked in a storm and then it's a LUCK test, which you die if you fail but get 1 Gold Piece from Mungo when you manage to get back to Port Blacksand.)

This book is a mess. I might rant about it more later, but I think you all feel the same way about it that I do.

In any case, it looks like the next book I'll do is DestinyQuest 2: The Heart of Fire (unless you'd rather I set up a poll in this thread) but that will have to wait for a bit (and it'll probably be slower to update than this LP), because I need a break from typing out long paragraphs. This book was a lot more taxing than I thought it would be.

[Queen of Swords]

This book is a mess. I might rant about it more later, but I think you all feel the same way about it that I do.

No kidding. There are other books with item hunts, but this one makes it seem like we're carting around the contents of a dumpster, and the majority of it was useless.

But the worst part was the rambling plot. You start out eating garbage, randomly acquire a map, decide to go on a treasure hunt, find nothing, bump into a ninja, wander around some more, stumble across someone who gives you a purpose in life, decide to stop Zanbar Bone, finally arrive in the port that's the title of the book, and then everything gets wrapped up in a rushed finale. I was bored just playing along with this, so kudos to you for typing out so much of nothing.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The plot is just so weightless, as are most of the FF cameos, which seem to be there for the sake of themselves. Like, the book is called 'The Port of Peril,' and Blacksand gets almost no ink. In City of Thieves, the city was vibrant, sordid, dangerous, mysterious, fantastical; a really great setting that's very poorly served here. It feels like Livingstone was doing this solely for the paycheck.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, IIRC, every other FF book had a definite plot, or at least a sense of what you were supposed to be doing, even if that was just "work out what's going on".

Too much junk, too many bonuses, too many cameos. And Lord Azzur doesn't serve Zanbar Bone.

[SGamerz]

This actually wasn't too far from what I expected, partly because knowing this was written by Livingstone I didn't set my expectations too high. Considering he hasn't written any FF gamebook for more than 30 years besides Blood of Zombies (which hadn't been received well either), I expected this to be little more than a nolstagia trip to Titan for him with lots of references to his past books inserted just for the sake of it (something which he was already known for).

[Darth Rabbitt]

But the worst part was the rambling plot. You start out eating garbage, randomly acquire a map, decide to go on a treasure hunt, find nothing, bump into a ninja, wander around some more, stumble across someone who gives you a purpose in life, decide to stop Zanbar Bone, finally arrive in the port that's the title of the book, and then everything gets wrapped up in a rushed finale.

Yeah, I'd be fine with either a "treasure hunt" story or a "fight resurrected Zanbar Bone" story, but they're two different stories poorly stitched together, and even taken on their own they're both poorly executed. The first act's biggest problem is just how goddamn padded it is, which ends up rushing the second act (and especially the endgame). Chalice starts out as a potentially interesting locale from its brief history in the intro (not the best, but not bad) but this is quickly tossed away for a series of fetch quests. A long inventory list of what's mostly garbage, a market that you can only access if you do a long trading quest (cut out some of the padding and you could even have those be separately accessible events. It wouldn't make the book actually good, but it would be an improvement).

Too much junk, too many bonuses, too many cameos. And Lord Azzur doesn't serve Zanbar Bone.

And for all the hype, he's just really there as a cameo himself. I could accept the retcon if it was as (or more) interesting than what came before and served the story in any way, but Lord Azzur already has an actually interesting backstory, and "serves a villain whose only relation to him is that they are both introduced in the same book just so he can be barely used at all in this book" is a strict downgrade to that.

The plot is just so weightless, as are most of the FF cameos, which seem to be there for the sake of themselves. Like, the book is called 'The Port of Peril,' and Blacksand gets almost no ink. In City of Thieves, the city was vibrant, sordid, dangerous, mysterious, fantastical; a really great setting that's very poorly served here. It feels like Livingstone was doing this solely for the paycheck.

I think the part that lost me the most was the whole "try to go to Port Blacksand to look for Klash only to be railroaded back for no reason other than to add the 'rescue Nicodemus' quest that leads you back to Port Blacksand where you find Klash anyways." That might be the sloppiest thing I've seen in a gamebook that isn't a literal broken reference or infinite loop.

This actually wasn't too far from what I expected, partly because knowing this was written by Livingstone I didn't set my expectations too high. Considering he hasn't written any FF gamebook for more than 30 years besides Blood of Zombies (which hadn't been received well either), I expected this to be little more than a nolstagia trip to Titan for him with lots of references to his past books inserted just for the sake of it (something which he was already known for).

That's actually a good point.

I didn't think that a Fighting Fantasy book could piss me off more than House of Hell. But this one is just so damn sloppy that it managed to do exactly that.